


I Swear

by UP2L8



Series: Multifandom Hentai Contest Entries [2]
Category: Archie Comics
Genre: Angst, I breed some very strange plot bunnies, I'm Sorry, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-14
Updated: 2016-03-14
Packaged: 2018-05-26 16:24:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 651
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6247147
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UP2L8/pseuds/UP2L8
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's only a movie, right?</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Swear

**Author's Note:**

> ~ Initially posted September 26th 2012. Prompt #63: Brokeback.

Jughead stepped into downtown Riverdale’s cool evening air, waiting for his friends to catch up as the movie theater spilled its patrons onto the sidewalk around him. Taking a few deep breaths, he forced himself to calm. He had rushed out ahead of the crowd, needing a few moments alone to fight back the overwhelming surge of intense emotion the film had stirred up inside him.

He hadn’t wanted to see it. He knew what the movie was about, and it hit far too close to home. He’d come anyway, because his friends would wonder why he refused to join them for their long standing Saturday night movie get together. And because after all, it was just a movie. How could it possibly cause him any more pain than his life did every single day? 

But it had. 

He’d seen himself in every scene. Watched in hopeless fascination, unable to close his eyes to the destruction of two lives, two lovers, one perfect, doomed love, knowing that he might very well be seeing his own future unfolding before him. 

The summer of their senior year would forever be engraved on his soul. Lost in the woods, working together to survive, huddling together for warmth under the frigid regard of late August stars and finding more heat than they bargained for – that single week had changed his life forever, made him look, really look, at who he thought he was. Strangely enough, it had never occurred to him that being a hater of women might mean he was a lover of men. 

They had agreed never to speak of it again, and they had not. Their friends and families might accept them, but Riverdale was a small town, and for most of its townsfolk love could only be defined in strict, traditional terms. In the end it was fear that cast the deciding vote. Fear of public ridicule and ostracism. Fear of the consequences that their friends and families would suffer because of them. Fear had stopped them before they had barely started. No one knew about them. No one ever would. All they now exchanged were soft sideward glances and tired, telling smiles. 

He had never expected it to hurt so much.

“Hey needle nose! What’d you take off for?” Reggie Mantle sauntered up with Veronica Lodge on his arm.

“Ran out for popcorn, but the concession stand was already closed.” 

The lie was accepted with the expected disparaging laughter. 

“Hey guys!” Archie Andrews moved through the thinning crowd to join them, Betty Copper clinging tight to his hand. “Want to head over to Pop Tate’s for pizza?”

Betty checked her watch. “It’s getting pretty late. I promised my folks I’d be home by ten.”

Archie nodded. “Okay, Betty, I’ll take you straight home. Want to ride with us Juggie?”

“Sure.” The tall skinny youth sauntered over to his friend’s beat up jalopy, hands clenched in his pockets.

Reggie slid a casual arm around the Lodge girl’s slender waist. “Then I guess it’s just you and me, Ronnie,” he said with a smirk. “The kiddies have a curfew.” The two teenagers laughed mockingly as they turned away.

Archie scowled at the snub, then opened the car door for his date, closing it behind her – the perfect gentleman. Jughead paused to watch the dark haired pair walk off arm in arm before sliding into the back seat of his best friend’s ride.

There was someone else Jughead wanted very much to ride with, but never could again. He watched the tall, raven haired boy walk away, remembering how those strong shoulders felt under his hands, how dark eyes had burned into his as he took him, the scent of clean sweat and pine, now seasoned with the bitter taste of hopeless desperation. 

He wished with all his heart that he could forget.

The ache in his heart told him he never would.


End file.
